europe bound, hopefully found

home, again.

First full day back in Houston. What a trip.

I had so much fun. I had my ups and I had my downs. It’s hard to be back in the real world, dealing with things that I had the opportunity to put off. Whatever happens I know I will have to deal with it. It’s good to realize that whatever was suppose to happen did, and will always continue like that, every day. It’s an easy yet hard concept to explain, but I hope you get it. And if you ever want to talk about life, call me up, it’s my favorite subject.

Being in Europe taught me a lot about myself, but I still long to dig deeper. I also feel that this trip did not give me enough time in every city. But, I feel like that’s okay, because now I know what it’s like to be all the way over there and I can go back by myself without being so scared. That’s something I definitely plan on, too.

Now it’s time to begin unpacking, doing laundry, catching up on sleep, and start figuring out my life—well at least until next spring. Thanks for reading if you did. Not too sure what to do with this thing now, but it’s been great. I’ve never done anything like it and I feel like I got a lot out of it. Because of that, it will stay up here.

Hear this: Buddy Holly - Dearest

Until the next time, stay as close to your heart and dreams as possible, keep true to others, always try new things, and keep realizing that you are in life - so live it. Live it for you.

Sincerely,

Rebecca

Posting live from Florence.

Finally posting live from Florence. Today was a holiday in Italy, and all the shops have been closed since five. I’m sitting on the street like a homeless person, yet enjoying my Macbook. My new friend Sabrina came with me to find some sort of free wifi around our hotel. It’s been a long day, we’ve been traveling all day and we stopped at Pisa on the way. I saw the game live at a restaurant within looking distance of the leaning tower of Pisa. As great as THAT was, as you know, Italy lost. I wish that ONE country that I visited would win a game in the World Cup. Oh well, can someone update me on the US?

Also, sorry for no pictures. Tomorrow, when it’s not a holiday and I can get on the web (without looking homeless on the side of the street) I will post some. Some of me with art and don’t forget those dorky pictures of me holding up the leaning tower of Pisa. Haha. Talk to you soon.

feel me:

sounds of a Florence main street, by the Medicci Church, people commenting on my homelessness while having a laptop on me.

Day 7. On the bus to Verona from Switzerland! Had my first taste of Italy on a bathroom/lunch stop just now. I had a salami and cheese baguette – it was so good!! The Diet Coke I got at the stop though, tastes like real Coke… yuck. In going into the little highway stop, I realized it’s going to be very hard to speak to the people here. London was English, Paris – I knew some French and lots of people spoke English, and in Switzerland people spoke pretty much German, which I knew enough to get by and be polite. In Italy, I’m going to depend on my body language to break the language barrier, how insane! That should be enough though, because Italian people use a crazy amount of body language anyway haha.

I am seriously crossing my fingers that by tonight, when we get to Venice, I will have internet. I need a to post. I need something, yet I really don’t know what it is. I think I may need time to myself. It’s like that feeling when you hang out with your best friend but a weeks later, you hate them. I think I’m just getting annoyed of the group or something. Sometimes it gets really bad and I get really frustrated because a lot of the people on the trip are really immature or just flat out clueless. I’ll get over it though.

More importantly, my cuticles are torn, my head hangs heavy and I’m trying to figure out how to survive our next city, one of the world’s most romantic cities, by myself. Sigh. Wish me luck, hopefully I will post this tonight.

feel me now,

Feist songs: The Mast, The Park, Past in Present

Two trains, two buses, and one bed bug bite later, I am in Switzerland. It’s not too late at night and I have had a nap on the bus and train, yet I am still exhausted. I feel like my problems that wait for me in America are catching up. Suddenly, I feel alone. I feel as though I cannot express myself to anyone on the trip and it is all slowly collecting inside. There is no internet at this hotel so my communication with the ones I can connect to, is gone. This hotel I am at is in the Alps; it is completely surrounded by mountains and beautiful. The mountains are covered in green, cottages and animals (mostly cows, goats, and giant bunnies). As much as I enjoy this area, I cannot get warm, either physically or mentally. We will be here only for the night and day then, I believe, we are off to Italy. I learn the travel plans as they come, it has been fun like that so far.

My head is killing me, so I’m off to bed. Tomorrow the group is off to the top of some mountain for a tour. Because I signed up late (I was invited last minute) I am not on the list. I could have decided to go ahead and join them and pay for it, but I think I’d rather spend some time with myself. We shall see how that turns out. I’m sure I will use some of that time to write or draw.

Enjoy the smaller things, until next time, chow.

6-20-10

Here I am, it’s 8:15am, on the fastest train (in the world? That’s what I heard). I waited to go to the bathroom so I could pee 320 kilometers an hour. Haha, anyways, we are on our way from Paris to Bern, Switzerland. I am currently listening to Octopus Project. It seems to go pretty well with the fast landscapes outside my window, not to mention I have yet to update my music collection… in months now. It’s also very inconvenient that my mp3 player happens to be a 15-pound machine (my macbook).

I didn’t post yesterday because I didn’t have internet. I guess I didn’t think about all that when I decided to start blogging. Either way, I’ve been enjoying it very much. Yesterday, we went to the Louvre. I had a lot of fun there, though it is annoyingly big and the Mona Lisa is overrated. YES, I did just say that. Being in the rooms it’s on display in is pretty intense. Guards everywhere and you can’t even get 12 feet from it because it’s so blocked off from the huge crowd. While in there, I wondered about Banksy and how on EARTH he was able to walk in and hang up a painting himself. I would have loved to see that go down, I would have given him a huge hug, for now I understand what he was trying to do.

After the Louvre, I went on my first adventure around the city by myself. I went to the top of one of the hills in Paris to this great little area. Made it through all the train stations I needed to go through without a flaw. There, I did some shopping and stopped to have a glass of wine in the middle of the main square outside (the weather has been perfect) to write and sketch some. I decided to walk all the way down the hill through the city to where we to meet the group for dinner. I’ve never been so proud of myself getting-around wise. I never got really lost on my two-hour walk back to the restaurant. If I was ever uncertain, I was sure to ask someone around me for help. I am convinced the preconceived notion that French people are rude and not helpful, is completely false. The customer service on the other hand, is FAR below average. It’s almost unbearable.

Well, time for a nap. I woke up at 4:45 this morning. I have a whole day of trains and buses ahead of me. Until next time!

feel me…

Bon Iver: Babys

Today was my second day in Paris. I went on a city-wide tour on a bus with the group, ate a gyro (I’ve always wondered how to say this word, please help if you know) from a street vender, went shopping, then climbed the Eiffel Tower. I never really realized how much work gets put into this city to make it so beautiful. Trees have to be a certain height, buildings have to be a certain height, and once you get to the top of the Eiffel, you see that the whole city is planned out with symmetry and beauty (and that started a LONG time ago). Everyone here dresses so fashionable. That’s really how you can pick out the bad tourists, they stick out like a new pair of white sneakers that probably count your steps and make you work out more muscles because of some crazy angle put in to them. I’m glad I somewhat fit in and look sort of natural here. I mean, the locals don’t even wear t-shirts - that is, unless it’s paired with some slim jeans and fashionable leather shoes.

I also saw some great graffiti today. We went to this beautiful part of the city that was up on a hill. Looking out of the outdoor patio that was in the middle of a main square, there were artists selling their works, MANY people eating and drinking (and everyone smokes), and the city off in the distance along with the Eiffel Tower and some fog. Around there I saw some Space Invader and Shepard Fairy. I’m looking for any other spots online to go see some great graffiti around the city since I don’t really have a lot of time to stumble upon it. Not that anyone would know - but if you do, PLEASE contact me on FB and let me know.

Not much else to say for now, I do feel as though my posts are getting weaker the more I do in the day. I am so tired. I climbed so many stairs today. I’m up and walking for about 11 hours a day now, and I have NO idea how I’m doing it. I think the hotels must put magic in all the tourists drinks in the morning. There’s no way these people would be doing this any other way. I guess its just the city. The cities are magic. I want to live in a magical city. I want to move to Europe.

Off to bed - I’m tired of retyping every other word I type because it doesn’t make sense or it’s misspelled. Haha goodnight/good morning to you.

ps: sorry for the uninteresting posts without pictures, this internet is crap! (and THAT is how you pronounce crepe here, that’s been fun….)